Monthly Archives: March 2013

Shiva remembered Lord Manu’s words. ‘Good and Evil are two sides of the same coin.’

The Neelkanth’s eyes widened. The key question isn’t ‘What is Evil?’

The key question is: ‘When does Good become Evil? When does the coin flip?’

The third and final edition of Amish’s Shiva Trilogy, The Oath Of The Vayuputras is out and while few of us think that he has gone overboard with all the promotions, the book is selling like a hot property. Does the author and his most ambitious work worthy of all adulation? Well, I am about to tell you just that. Those who haven’t read a single book of the trilogy please stop reading cause there are few spoilers.Two years ago when I finished The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret Of The Nagas back to back I didn’t know that I will be waiting for the third one so impatiently. The concept was simple, Shiva as a real human being in the real world. A tribal who is an exceptional fighter, loves to dance, sing and smokes chillam with his friend. He abuses too.Fate takes Shiva to Meluha, a perfect city in search of its Neelkanth. The Meluhans live for hundreds and hundreds of years thanks to the world’s greatest invention, the Somras. Somras’ existence is under constant threat by Chandravanshis and Nagas who have planned attacks on Mount Mandar, the place where Somras is created. To rescue them from the vile chandravanshis and terrorist Nagas, the Meluhans turn to their Neelkanth, their Shiva. But does something that brings the greatest good can be the cause of the biggest evil too? Good and evil are two sides of the same coin and while there’s good there’s evil too. But it is only a matter of time when the coin completely flips and evil takes over the good. That is when the good needs to be destroyed, that is when Shiva – the destroyer, the Neelkanth steps in. The trilogy is Shiva’s journey from being a tribal leader to the Mahadev, the Superhuman.

What is beautiful about Amish’s writing is that he has woven a Mythological tale into a believable story. He introduces Nagas as monsters who can fight like Ninjas and are the enemies of humanity. But in reality they are just normal humans born with deformities; a pair of extra hands and nose like elephant. The Nagas are the babies born to the Meluhans who were abandoned because of their deformed bodies. But are they really evil? There’s more than meets the eyes. Is Shiva being fooled by the Meluhans? Or are the Chandravanshis and Nagas taking him for a ride? Or is it just the powerful people who are letting the evil rise for their own good? I can’t answer all these questions for you cause these very curiosities make the story work. All I can say is that the research that has been put in to write this trilogy is worth all the applause.